This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art which may be related to various aspects of the present invention that are described and/or claimed below. The discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present subject matter. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Computer servers are used by a wide array of users in various configurations. Server systems often comprise multiple servers and/or server blades housed in a chassis and/or a standard rack mount. To house blade servers, a server system may comprise a chassis including multiple blade bays, with each blade bay configured to house a single full height server blade. The server blades may include processing blade modules, input/output (IO) blade modules, and the like. In a system with multiple blade modules, the modules may be electrically coupled to facilitate the exchange of data between the modules. For example, a processing blade module may exchange information with an IO module or another processing module in an adjacent server bay via a backplane in the system. As server blades have become more compact, more blade modules may be located in a single system. Thus, as the number of blade modules increase, the complexity and cost of a server system may increase significantly due to the increased number of processors, controllers and other components required to interface between the server blade modules in the system. For example, replicating IO modules to expand IO capability for a server blade may be cost prohibitive when an IO module includes a controller and multiple peripheral devices such as disk drives.